An interview with Jess Reid, the 2022-23 Vice President for Communities at the University of Stirling Students' Union.
Location: University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK
I met with Jess Reid, the 2022-23 Vice President (VP) Communities of the University of Stirling Students' Union and campaigner with Reclaim Stirling. An interesting connection Reid and I had was that she actually took a gap year to come to Australia to nanny for a family in Canberra - a couple kilometres down the road from my place!
Reid has been involved in various forms of activism and community work since she was 16 years old and visited the Holocaust Education Trust. This was Reid's first introduction to activism and how education and knowledge can be used as a tool for change. Since then, she has been very active in various different activist movements and campaigns. Notably, she started the Sexual Health and Education Society at the University of Stirling in 2019. This society works to destigmatise sexual health through education and resources, and by facilitating honest conversations with students.
When Reid and her peers noticed how prevalent gender-based violence was at their university, they created the group Reclaim Stirling. Reclaim Stirling is a group of students seeking to challenge the University of Stirling's sexual violence policy and to create an open dialogue between university management, the students’ union, societies and students to tackle the issue together. Reid brought together a volunteer team to develop and launch the Reclaim Stirling Report, which details survey responses by students on their experiences of sexual violence on campus and views on the university's efforts to address it. After this report was released, the university reacted with retaliation by accosting Reid in a meeting rather than seeking to understand and do better - an unfortunately all-too-common response by university administrators when called out for their inadequate responses to campus sexual violence.
“The whole experience was very draining.”
Activism efforts like Reid's work with Reclaim Stirling can take a toll. Reid was met with reactiveness by university staff but was supported by students. When she was appointed as VP Communities for the Students' Union, she was able to pass on leadership of Reclaim Stirling.
In her role as VP Communities, she was able to implement recommendations as a direct result of her prior activism, including first responder training for student leaders on responding to disclosures of sexual violence. One of her goals when we spoke was to implement mandatory training on consent and sexual violence for all students. This is important to Reid as she is really passionate about setting a standard of respect and contributing to a culture that normalises consent.
I shared my experiences trying to work alongside student unions with The STOP Campaign, and how I struggled to even get a response to an email, let alone a meeting or support for a campaign or initiative I was running. Reid's advice was to continue to be consistent in communications, ask union representatives questions about what they’re doing in public forums, always record what is discussed in meetings, ensure there are numerous representatives at those meetings, and attend their office during office hours to chat. These regular communications can help to hold appointed representatives in the student union accountable, especially when they are paid to help students and use their voice to influence positive change.
Reid knows how important it is to listen to activists at university. She spoke about how activism stems from a purely selfless act - activists are doing it because they know it will make it better for everyone.
“There are no gains from being an activist.”
Universities also need to realise that students don't get involved in campus sexual violence activism for personal gain, but to use their lived experience and expertise to improve outcomes for others. We need to have more trust in activists and students, argues Reid.
“Universities and student unions always say that students ‘don’t know how things work’, but we need to show them.”
I love the way that Reid stands up for students, particularly student activists, and focuses on building trust with the student body to make change. Student union representatives have greater relative power in the university system and can easily get wrapped up in the politics of campus life. Instead, student unions have the power to lift up student activists and help them effect change in ways far beyond what those activists could achieve without their support - and Reid did just that in her time as VP Communities.
“For me, activism is an opportunity to make your life about more than work, eat, sleep. It's about changing the community. In the capitalist world we’re in, we’re constantly in a rat-race - activism allows us to realise there is more to our role in [the] world. Activism is our opportunity to be the change.”
One of Reid's inspirations is Dr Kate Lister, a historian, author and lecturer that primarily researches the literary history of sex work and curates the online research project, Whores of Yore, an interdisciplinary digital archive for the study of historical sexuality. Reid is an activist who inspires me. Her focus on trust, relationships, community building, education and accountability to create a safer university experience for everyone at the University of Stirling is astounding. Thank you Jess Reid for taking the time to meet with me - I appreciate you and all you do!
In solidarity,
Camille Schloeffel
References / Learn more:
Komentáre